c. 675 - 754
An Anglo-Saxon missionary archbishop, the apostle of Germany, killed by pagans near Dokkum in Frisia. Distinct from St Boniface I, Pope of Rome (OS-0207).
The Holy Hieromartyr Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, Enlightener of Germany
Boniface, called the Apostle to the Germans, was an Anglo-Saxon missionary archbishop who carried the Christian faith into Frisia and the German lands during the eighth century. Born Winfrid (Wynfreth) in Wessex around 675, in the region of Crediton in Devon, he trained as a monk in southern England before devoting the latter part of his life to missionary work on the continent.
Commissioned by successive popes and renamed Boniface, he organized churches and dioceses across Germany, reformed the Frankish church, and founded monasteries, most notably the abbey of Fulda. He was killed by armed attackers near Dokkum in Frisia on 5 June 754 and is venerated as a hieromartyr. His relics were interred at Fulda, which became a major place of pilgrimage.
Boniface was born Winfrid, also rendered Wynfreth, around 675 in Wessex, in the area of Crediton in Devon. He received his theological and monastic training in Benedictine houses in southern England, including the monastery of Nursling near Winchester under Abbot Winbert.
At about the age of thirty he was ordained a priest. Before turning to missionary work on the continent he was active as a teacher and wrote grammatical and poetic works.
In 716 Boniface travelled to Utrecht, where he worked alongside Willibrord, then returned to England. He afterward journeyed to Rome, where Pope Gregory II gave him the name Boniface and appointed him a missionary bishop for the German lands around 717-719.
His preaching extended across Hesse, Thuringia, and Bavaria. He is remembered above all for felling the sacred oak dedicated to the god Thor near Fritzlar in Hesse, an act traditionally placed in 723 and regarded as marking the beginning of the Christianization of the region. He organized the church in Bavaria, establishing the dioceses of Salzburg, Regensburg, Freising, and Passau.
In 732 Pope Gregory III conferred on Boniface the pallium as archbishop with jurisdiction over the German lands, and during his third visit to Rome in 737-738 he was made papal legate for Germany. In 745 he received Mainz as his metropolitan see.
Working under the patronage of the Frankish ruler Carloman, Boniface devoted himself to the reform of the Frankish church, convening the Concilium Germanicum in 743. In 742 his disciple Sturm founded the abbey of Fulda, a monastery in whose establishment Boniface was closely involved and which became a centre of his work.
In 754, by then an aged archbishop, Boniface set out with a small retinue for Frisia, where he had begun his missionary career. After baptizing a great number of people and summoning a gathering for their confirmation, he and his companions were attacked and killed by armed assailants near Dokkum on 5 June 754. He is venerated as a hieromartyr.
Boniface's remains were eventually interred at the abbey of Fulda, which he had helped to establish. Fulda became a major site of Christian pilgrimage associated with his memory.
Born c. 675, Wessex; reposed 754, Dokkum.